Ready Set Startuphttp://www.readysetstartup.com
How to grow your startup idea into a 6 figure businessWed, 07 Sep 2016 12:32:36 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.4.5Startup Tip 69: You NEED to super charge your startup creationhttp://www.readysetstartup.com/startup-impact/
http://www.readysetstartup.com/startup-impact/#commentsWed, 25 Nov 2015 09:14:16 +0000http://www.readysetstartup.com/?p=3204There’s something in you that you HAVE to share with the world. I KNOW there is. Here’s why. You have this business idea that you think about all the time. You can see exactly what your startup will look like when it’s finished. It really inspires you. It keeps you awake at night. You feel […]

You have this business idea that you think about all the time. You can see exactly what your startup will look like when it’s finished. It really inspires you. It keeps you awake at night. You feel like it’s something you MUST do. It’s hard, but you believe all the effort will be worth it in the end.

You know you were meant to be an entrepreneur. There’s something about creating your own thing that really fires you up. No other way of working seems as exciting as creating your own business.

If you are excited about being an entrepreneur, that feeling is there for a reason. It’s not just an idle dream. It’s something that has been planted in your heart.

You were given your business ideas for a reason. You were entrusted with them because YOU have something to offer. YOU are the one to bring them into a world that needs them. And your ideas are something YOU can do that no one else can in quite the same way.

That’s why your idea came to you.

Because YOU are the right person to bring it to the world.

And that’s why you lie awake at night. Because these feelings are a message to you that there is something you MUST do.

You and I know that startups aren’t just about the money. Right?

Of course they need to make money – or else they wouldn’t be businesses.

But startups are primarily about making a positive difference in the world. They are about impact. The money comes when you are blessed to make enough difference to enough people.

Your startup idea has been given to you, so you can make an impact.

THAT’s why you need to super charge your startup creation.

If you have a startup idea inside you that you are not working on yet – or if you have a startup that is not yet having the impact you have dreamed of – you owe it to the world to get that idea to the place where it is having the impact you know it could.

So as the year is drawing to a close, if you are like me, you are probably looking back on the past year and thinking about what you will do next year.

How do you feel about the progress you have made on your startup in 2015? Are you happy?

If you know you haven’t made the progress you wanted to, what stopped you?

There’s lots of reasons why you might not progress. Life happens. I understand that. Boy do I understand that!

However, let’s move forward regardless. Because we have something we want – no! we NEED to build to impact the world.

Action:

So, I have a few questions for you.

If you are celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend, take some time out to give thanks for what is great in your startup and also to think about what you want to change next year. (If you just have an ordinary weekend, you can do the same thing. )

And let’s plan to make some massive impact in the year ahead.

What do you have to be thankful for in regard to your startup?

Do you feel satisfied with your journey in building your startup this year?

What do you want to achieve next year? What do you want to be looking back on in November 2016?

How are you going to make sure that happens? What needs to change in your heart, mind and environment so it does?

PS. In the Spirit of Thanksgiving, leave a comment and share one thing you are thankful for in your business this year.

Have you got a few special books on your bookshelf? You know the ones I’m talking about. The ones which felt like an epiphany when you read them. The ones whose lessons changed your life in some significant way. I want to share 5 of my special books for entrepreneurs with you today. They are […]

Hack your way to a better business and a better life

Why you should read it: Because you will learn lots of smart strategies and hacks to finding a business idea, testing the market for it and automating to sales process to free up your time. Tim is really great at cutting through to the essence of what you need to focus on to build a business that works and have a life. Reading this has helped me make smarter decisions about my business.

Change the World

Why you should read it: If you want to explore social entrepreneurship, this book is a must read. Even if you don’t want to build a social business, learning about how these men and women have built their businesses will give you lots of great strategies you can apply.

This book really inspired me with great stories entrepreneurs around the world who were building social businesses on a large scale that impact lots of people. The author also pulls out some of the common threads about what social entrepreneurship is and who makes a good social entrepreneur.

Find your perfect Customers

Why you should read it: Steve Blank is the grandfather of the Lean Startup movement. This book is the Bible for how to find your perfect customers and develop a product they will buy. It has step by step instructions which I have used to validate product ideas with success.

Work out how you will make money with your idea

Why you should read it: Contrary to it’s really boring title, this book is not at all boring either in it’s content or readability. It’s the book the Business Model Canvas comes from and it gives you powerful but simple tools for understanding and creating business models that work. And if you are not sure what business models are, you definitely should read it.

Develop the superpower of overcoming obstacles

Why you should read it: i have to say, this is my favourite book on the list even though it’s not about entrepreneurship per se. It’s one of the most life changing books I have ever read. It will teach you to become resilient with very simple and do-able techniques. No matter what you are facing, this book will help you overcome it.

I would love to be able to give away a copy of these to each one of you, but unfortunately I can’t do that. However, in the Spirit of Christmas, I am giving away a copy of each of them to one lucky person. If you’d like to enter the draw, click through to win 5 books to rock your startup in 2015. Once you enter, don’t forget to share your link to gain more entries into the draw.

Has this happened to you? You spend ages creating a great opt-in bonus that has heaps of value for your target audience and then hardly anyone signs up to get it. Or you research and test a product idea, everyone says they want it and then when you finally launch it, people click on your sales page […]

You spend ages creating a great opt-in bonus that has heaps of value for your target audience and then hardly anyone signs up to get it.

Or you research and test a product idea, everyone says they want it and then when you finally launch it, people click on your sales page but don’t actually buy.

If you’ve found yourself in either of these two situations – and let’s face it, we all have – you have a problem with your marketing.

Marketing is about taking customers on a journey. You create a set of experiences for your customers and your aim as a marketer is to convince them to stay with you for the ride and take the action you want (optin, share, purchase or something else) at the destination. The technical term for this process is a sales funnel, but I think the journey analogy is more useful.

So let’s look at an example of a customer journey I went on a couple of weeks ago to see what works and what doesn’t and why. This one is for getting potential customers to opt-in to an email list but the principles are exactly the same to move people to a purchase. We’ll look at all the different elements of a real life sales funnel and pull it apart to learn from it. Ready?

The sales funnel that made me go ‘Huh?’

1. The Facebook ad

I was online the other day and came across this ad on Facebook. I clicked on it (which I rarely do) – because it promised to tell me how to make and extra $8,000 – $16,000 a month, and who doesn’t want that right?

The Facebook Ad – the beginning of the sales funnel

So, first point, the advertiser (who shall remain nameless) did a great job with this ad. They put something I want in front of my face and got me to notice it and click through. It’s a great first piece to their sales funnel.

Why this works

Bright, colourful picture to attract my visual attention

Clear and specific benefit and result to get me to take action

2. The landing page

So then I click through and I see this:

Sales funnel step 2 – the landing page doesn’t relate to the ad I clicked through from

In a well constructed sales funnel, each piece should be designed to continue the journey and move the prospect through to taking an action. However, there’s no continuation of the journey here. They actually start me on a new one.

There’s no mention of $8000 – $16,000. That’s what I’m really interested in. Instead what I’m offered is a free report: The Master Class Blueprint. I think, “Ok, not what I was expecting and I’m not sure how I’m going to make $8-16K but maybe they will tell me in the report.” So, giving them the benefit of the doubt, I sign up.

The problem here is that the marketer is causing a disruption in my thinking and they are leaving me to make all the connections myself. Not only do I have to do all the brain work – this breaks my trust. It makes me wonder if they are credible. Can I really believe what they say, if they didn’t deliver on their first promise. Do you see how this works?

What they could have done differently:

They definitely should have mentioned what was promised in the ad. Kept a consistent message to build my trust that they are credible and it is safe to give them my email address.

Using the same image and colours that were in the ad would also have helped communicate that consistency. This page looks totally unrelated and different.

A consistent message in both words and visuals, means that it is a no-brainer for me to give them my email address. After all, by clicking, I have already demonstrated that I want an extra $8000 – $16000 a month. Confirm that is what you are going to give me and I will swap my email address for that information. Disrupt my thinking, offer me another choice, as was done here, and I could very well choose to click away and exit the sales funnel. (I have to add here, that if I wasn’t some kind of freak who likes to see how other people’s marketing works :-), I would have dropped out of the sales funnel right here.)

3. The ‘Thankyou’ page

Next, bizarrely, after I have signed up, I get taken to this page:

Sales funnel step 3 – this page should thank me for taking the action requested – and deliver on the promise in the original ad

This makes me do a double-take. “Wheel of Fortune???” Then in the first line of text they tell me I have signed up for their webinar. “Webinar? What webinar? I didn’t sign up for a webinar. I signed up for a free report. No I didn’t. What I really wanted to know was how to make $8-16K a month. And they still haven’t told me!”

Not only is this page completely left of field, it also offers me prizes that I’ve never heard of before. WTF? And what’s more, if I check out the sign up button at the bottom of the page, they want me to give them all my worldly details.

The opt-in button on the ‘thank you’ page. They might as well ask for my bank account details too!

Each piece of the sales funnel should build trust and rapport with the potential customer. Therefore, the response I had to this page is a bad, bad response from the point of view of a marketer. Not at all what you want to elicit from a potential customer. The marketer has now made my experience more like a maze than a journey and completely broken my trust. Again, this page looks completely different and the message has no connection to the ad I originally clicked on.

What they could have done differently:

At this point, the marketer should have delivered on their first promise. This builds credibility and trust in the potential customer’s eyes and allows the possibility of further interaction in the future. Instead they are wanting me to give them more and more. There is a marketing theory that suggests that once you have a customer taking an action (like opting in or purchasing), it is easier to get them to take a further action. However, I think you should treat your audience and customers like real people – because they are!! You would never ask a friend to babysit your kids and then ask them to cook you dinner as well. Why not? Well, you are stretching the friendship and they probably won’t be around for you next time if it’s all give with no return. People have the same psychology online as they do in ‘real’ life. If you are ever in doubt about what to do online, just think ‘Would I do this face to face?’

The most common (and courteous) response to someone opting in to your newsletter or buying your product is to give them a thank you – and deliver what you have promised.

4. The followup

They want me to give them all my details? The marketer hasn’t established enough credibility and rapport with me for me to want to do that so I think, ‘No way!’ I go and check my email. This is what I find:

Email follow up – still no mention of my $8000 – $16000 a month.

Still no mention of that $8-$16K a year. Just this report that I didn’t want anyway. Then when I click through to check it out, finally, there it is.

Finally, here it is. But after all that, how does the marketer know I would be interested in running group master classes. They should have qualified this earlier.

Do you see the problem here? I had to go through 6 steps to get the answer that the FB ad promised me and nowhere along the way was it mentioned again. I’m a bit strange. I like to check out how people do their marketing and learn from that. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have even filled out the first sign up form. The marketer would have lost me out of the sales funnel before I’d even got going and the disconnect that each piece after that caused made it more and more likely that I would click away without taking the action they were hoping for.

None of the strategies used are bad. They could all work very well in a sales funnel in the right context. It was the lack of continuity in the marketing message that made me feel like I was being sold to and made me distrust the marketer. The marketer hadn’t thought through my experience as a customer. They hadn’t planned a nice smooth journey for me. Instead they led me through a maze which created a lot of confusion, uncertainty and distrust. Not emotions that are going to put me into an optimum buying frame of mind!

Takeaways:

Sales funnel mistakes that stopped me from buying or opting in

They didn’t deliver on the initial promise they made straight away. The effect of this was that it cut across rapport, broke my trust and made them lose credibility.

The visual and written messages weren’t consistent with each other and from piece to piece throughout the journey.

They asked for too many personal details for a first interaction before they had created trust.

Things they should have done differently in the sales funnel.

Created a seamless and consistent customer experience

Delivered on promises

Created trust before they asked me to do something else for them.

In Summary

You need to take customers on a journey

The journey has to be logical, create rapport and engage your prospect’s emotions in a positive way.

Anything that makes a customer go ‘huh?’ greatly increases the chance of them clicking away.

THAT’s why continuity and thinking from your customer’s perspective and goals is so important.

Let me know in the comments if, next time, you’d like to look at a marketing funnel that’s done well and see why it works and how it will get you better conversions.

Top image used courtesy of Laura Dinneen under Creative Commons license.

]]>http://www.readysetstartup.com/sales-funnel/feed/6Startup Tip 68: Why thinking too big can be fatal & thinking too small can be deadlyhttp://www.readysetstartup.com/big-vision-next-step/
http://www.readysetstartup.com/big-vision-next-step/#commentsThu, 05 Jun 2014 08:32:11 +0000http://www.readysetstartup.com/?p=2870Every entrepreneur has it. The tension between the grand vision of what they see their business could become and the stark reality of where they are now. How do you bridge the chasm without getting overwhelmed on one hand or stuck in the minutiae of day to day tasks on the other? I’ve recorded a short video […]

]]>http://www.readysetstartup.com/big-vision-next-step/feed/4Have you won the battle every successful entrepreneur must fight?http://www.readysetstartup.com/battle-every-successful-entrepreneur-must-fight-win-day/
http://www.readysetstartup.com/battle-every-successful-entrepreneur-must-fight-win-day/#commentsMon, 14 Apr 2014 20:45:01 +0000http://www.readysetstartup.com/?p=2835Note: Pick up the free poster to go along with this post. It’s my favourite quotes that give me daily inspiration to win the battle. I’ve got a confession to make. And later, a resolution as well. So here it is: I spent my whole week last week doing… nothing. I mean, I sat at my desk, […]

Note: Pick up the free poster to go along with this post. It’s my favourite quotes that give me daily inspiration to win the battle.

I’ve got a confession to make.

And later, a resolution as well.

So here it is: I spent my whole week last week doing… nothing.

I mean, I sat at my desk, and I flicked between Facebook and Twitter and email and Facebook and Twitter and email and Facebook and Twitter and email – you know the drill. I know I’m not the only one who’s done that.

I got no productive work done.

So you’re probably thinking that I got distracted by social media and that this is a post on staying focused. Except you’d be wrong.

Sometimes procrastination is actually something else

The real reason I got no work done, was that I was paralysed by fear.

I’m releasing our first product soon at Ready Set Startup and, although I’m excited about it, to be honest, I’m shit scared. “What if no one likes it? What if it’s a big flop? I’m sure you’ve heard those voices – all that stuff that can go on in our head at times.

That was me last week.

This happens every time I move outside my comfort zone

I wanted to tell you about it because I wanted to be accountable for it. And I also wanted to share with you some of the realities of being an entrepreneur. Because the fact is, every entrepreneur at some stage, actually at multiple times, experiences fear. [Tweet this]

It’s part of the journey.

It’s the thing that comes up against us whenever we’re pushing forward, whenever we’re doing something that’s good, something that will contribute, something that will move us and other people forward.

That fear comes to stop us. It’s very common. It happens often.

And because that fear so often comes when we are about to dive into something good that is outside our comfort zone, (and never when we are comfortable or engaged in non-productive activities), we can take it as a sign that we are on the right track. [Tweet this]

If you haven’t experienced it yet – expect it – because you will. If you haven’t experienced it yet, maybe you’re not pushing yourself enough. I’ll just put that out there.

So that was me. I have to say that last week, I gave into fear.

Feel the fear or die

I don’t want you to give in to fear. Or at least, not for long. I want you to work with me here.

Let’s make sure that when this fear comes, we recognise it for what it is – it’s actually a sign that we’re on the right track. It’s actually a sign that we’re doing the right thing.

Let’s make a commitment, when we feel that fear, to push forward anyway, because we only have 2 choices. One is to keep procrastinating and doing nothing and we can do that to the day we die if we really choose. But by choosing that we actually die a bit inside.

Or we can say, “I know I’m going to feel this but I’m just going to push on and I’m going to do it anyway.”

Let’s make that choice.

So here’s my resolution

The urgency to make this choice has really been stamped on my consciousness this week, because this week, a friend that I grew up with, passed away after a long battle with cancer. It really brought it home to me that none of us know how long we’ve got. We don’t know how much time there is.

Let’s use every day to make a difference. Let’s not be stopped by anything from doing the work that we know we must do, the work God’s put within us.

It’s not easy.

IT’S NOT EASY! Building a business is one of the most personally confronting things you can do. [Tweet this]

It’s hard – and that’s why a lot of people don’t make it as an entrepreneur. Because they are not prepared to meet, persevere and transcend the obstacles we all inevitably face.

Let’s expect the fear, let’s take it as a sign we’re on the right track and let’s push through it, do our work every day and move forward.

Can you make that commitment with me?

Let’s make every day count.

Resources:

Pick up the free poster to go along with this post. It’s my favourite quotes for daily inspiration to win the battle, the ones that really help me move past fear and resistance.

]]>http://www.readysetstartup.com/battle-every-successful-entrepreneur-must-fight-win-day/feed/13How to build your social startup with no team and no moneyhttp://www.readysetstartup.com/promise-pay-social-venture-young-entrepreneur/
http://www.readysetstartup.com/promise-pay-social-venture-young-entrepreneur/#commentsTue, 11 Mar 2014 05:07:21 +0000http://www.readysetstartup.com/?p=2781

Excuses. We’re all good at making them. Whether it’s why we can’t start exercising today or why we can’t start our startup just yet. I often hear people tell me they have obstacles like I haven’t got any money, I can’t find a technical cofounder or I live in a developing country. The story […]

Excuses. We’re all good at making them. Whether it’s why we can’t start exercising today or why we can’t start our startup just yet.

Jay Boolkin, Founder – PromiseOrPay.com

I often hear people tell me they have obstacles like

I haven’t got any money,

I can’t find a technical cofounder or

I live in a developing country.

The story I want to share with you today shows that all these obstacles can be overcome.

Jay Boolkin has built and launched a promising social venture, Promise or Pay, which helps people achieve their goals and overcome their excuses. And he did it as a sole founder, with no money while living in Cambodia.

Read our interview with him to find out how.

What is the problem you are trying to solve? What led you personally to tackling this problem?

Jay: We are all trying to improve – all the time. The problem is that sticking to self-improvement goals is really difficult. At beginning of 2013 I made some resolutions to change my life but despite trying really hard I was unable to follow through on any of them. I wasn’t the only one. In fact, while 45% of people make New Year’s resolutions only 8% stick to them. Change is hard. Even if we get really inspired – it’s tough to stick to new behaviours. What sucks is that when we fail to reach a goal, regardless of the effort with put in, we are often left feeling disappointed and discouraged.

What is the solution you came up with? Tell us about Promise or Pay.

Jay: I did some exploring and found that the chance of achieving a goal

increases 33% if it is shared with others and

increases by 72% if money is put on the line.

It was this research that was the brainchild of Promise or Pay. Promise or Pay combines both of these approaches to help you achieve your goals and change the world for the common good. The idea is powerful but simple. Promise or Pay allows you to publicly promise to do something & achieve it, using social media to announce your intentions to your friends, or pay a nominated contribution to a charity if you don’t follow through. Either you keep your promise thereby benefiting yourself, or you contribute towards solving a pressing social problem via your donation. As a result, it helps overcome the dispiriting and upsetting feelings that often arise when we fall short of accomplishing something important.

How Promise or Pay works – Click to enlarge

What has the response been since launching your beta in December 2013?

Jay: It’s been good. We have had 80 pledges made on the site, with a total of $4000 pledged. We donated $500 to charity in Jan and that increased 16% in February to about $1100 donated in total. We’re getting about 3000 page views per month.

Many entrepreneurs tell me their target market is ‘everyone’. But that is never true. Who specifically is your target market and how did you identify who they were and where to reach them?

Jay: Promise or Pay has massive potential as it appeals to the natural human instinct to set goals, to have dreams and to make resolutions. It leverages off the social trend to share experiences with others electronically and it speaks to a generation that have grown up in a world where social issues are impossible to ignore and are looking for a way to make a difference. I am currently targeting and testing a number of audiences with specific ambitions since the primary motivation of using Promise or Pay is not to donate to charity but to achieve a personal goal. For example, those trying to quit smoking, lose weight, eating healthier, and exercise more. I have zero budget for paid advertising and therefore rely heavily on social media to spread the word and connect with relevant blogs, bloggers and journalists. I also enter competitions as I have found it is great way to get free exposure and raise Promise or Pay’s profile.

How did you get the money to build your current site and launch the venture?

Jay: I had had the idea for a few months but no resources to start executing. I entered a competition called the Social Startups MVP program and was fortunate enough to win. The prize was a Beta version of the site with personal and digital marketing coaching thrown in. Because of this, I was able to spend 6 months developing the site with programmers who are based in India and then launched in December 2013. I have no budget for this so am using my time to market on blogs and social media.

What is your strategy for entering the market?

Jay: At the moment my basic strategy is to develop a strong understanding of Promise or Pay’s target audience and present clear, concise and powerful messages that resonate with potential customers and address their actual needs.

Entrepreneurship is a team sport. Who else is on your team? Where are you all based?

Adriel ‘Bacon’ Young who is a Bondi Rescue Lifeguard and up-and-coming triathlete and has promised to learn Swedish or pay $100 to SURFAID.

Jay: To-date Promise or Pay has been a one-man show. I am the designer, marketer, customer service manager and accountant. I am currently based in Cambodia, however I am originally from Sydney and Promise or Pay is registered in Australia. Balancing work on Promise or Pay with my day-to-day job as a Program Development Officer at a local community-based organisation is a challenge. However I do have a strong team of collaborators that are providing ongoing direction and support. I have a very experienced strategic partner based in Melbourne, Omer Khan, founder and CEO at Social Startups and Impact Investors, who is providing startup expertise and who financed the development and launch of the MVP. I have a great CTO, Bhavi Chadha, managing director at Fluid3, and work directly with his fantastic development team who are based in India. I also have an advisory team that consists of a highly successful investor and business mentor, a digital marketing specialist, Jazz O’Donnell, Founder & CEO at Just Good Marketing, and a personal coach, Kerry Grace, Director at Evolve Network Australia.

Many people don’t understand that social ventures need to make some income to sustain themselves and keep operating. If site users are donating to charities, how will you make sure you get the income you need to cover the venture’s operational costs?

Jay: Revenue is currently generated through a per donation service fee paid by the charities listed on the website. Further income streams will be created by advertising fees paid by businesses for promoting special offers and tailored reward programs.

What are 1 or 2 things you have done that have had the biggest impact in launching the venture so far? What tips would you give other entrepreneurs wanting to launch an idea they have?

Jay: Practically, the most significant thing would be (entering and) winning a competition and therein receiving funding to develop a first proof of concept. Without this opportunity building Promise or Pay would have been very difficult. Building a social venture, and I’m sure this is not an uncommon experience, is absolutely engrossing – Promise or Pay is my life. My passion and commitment to seeing it through to success (or failure) means that all my energy is devoted towards it. I have never been more challenged or worked harder. There have been countless nights when I can’t sleep and will work until the sun begins to rise. There is no doubt I have seen the dawn more times in the past 7 months than I have in all the years of my life combined. And I wouldn’t change a thing. I love what I am doing. The journey to get where I am today, the people I have met, the lessons I have learnt – none of it would have happened if I would have listened to my intellect, where the fear of failure hides, and somehow, someway, convinced myself it wasn’t worth a try. What tips would I give? If you have an idea that you think is worth pursuing then put your doubts to one side and follow your instinct. I promise it will be one hell of an experience. Think big, start small, and stay focused. And enter competitions.

Where do you see the venture in a year, 2 years and 5 years? What are some of your goals for the venture?

Jay: While I have generated some excellent early results the current site is very much a Beta version. I intend to expand Promise or Pay in the near future to make it a community for self-improvement. My plan is to start working full time on Promise or Pay so that I can dedicate more energy towards improving the customer acquisition process, maximising conversion rates, automating a number of manual processes and further refining the platform. In 5 years, I hope to have achieved Promise or Pay’s mission, which is to inspire millions of people around the world to be the best that they can be, and at the same time, to have encouraged and facilitated millions of dollars in donations to charities.

What it is like building a start-up in developing country?

Phnom Penh, Cambodia where Jay is based.

Jay: It’s still early days but it’s been great. I am currently bootstrapping Promise or Pay which is easy to do in a country like Cambodia, where the cost of living is low. This will also make it more feasible to start working on the project fulltime and still being able to have a good quality of life. I can get access to fast, reliable Internet which, at Promise or Pay’s current stage, is all I really need. Moving forward, the lack of access to outside networks, events, resources and investment may require relocating or simply a bit of flying around. But I am so much more centrally located (compared to Sydney) when it comes to international travel that I don’t see this as a big issue. So far so good.

Takeaways: (Susan’s notes)

What we can learn from this entrepreneur

Jay was committed enough to his idea to find a way to execute. You may say that he was just lucky to win the competition, but you know what they say about luck being preparation meeting opportunity!

Jay has not taken on a co-founder as yet because it has not been necessary. He has all the skills he needs to execute at the moment. Because of this, he has preserved the equity in the venture and been able to keep it lean so it can work as a social venture. At the same time, he is able to keep his motivation high and stop himself from feeling isolated by using his mentors.

Promise or Pay in its current form is a low-feature platform compared to Jay’s ultimate vision for it. By buildinjg and testing the most important hypothesis first (will people make a public promise and donate if they don’t achieve it) he is testing whether the whole idea has legs. So far it seems that the answer is ‘yes.’

Winning the competition and being based in Cambodia has helped Jay keep costs as low as possible until he knows whether he is getting traction in the market. This is important, because it gives him a longer runway to make the venture a success.

Next Steps

Jay’s understanding of his target market is a bit fuzzy. He needs to choose a couple of niches and test their interest in his venture. He could also do a survey of people who have already pledged on Promise or Pay and look for patterns that may give him clues about the segments of people that will use Promise or Pay.

Jay has been on a learning curve in terms of his marketing strategies. He is using some strategies that are giving him good results, such as social media and blogger outreach. He is also developing a good following on Facebook. It is probably a good idea now for Jay to work on developing a full marketing plan. Formalising his current strategies into a plan will help him determine whether they are going to be enough to meet his goals for the venture and will also help him uncover new strategies.

Join the Conversation:

Do you have any questions for Jay? Pop them in the comments. And head on over to Promise or Pay and make a commitment to achieve one of those goals that has been on your list for a while.

]]>http://www.readysetstartup.com/promise-pay-social-venture-young-entrepreneur/feed/21Startup Tip 67: The secret weapon for beating procrastination and getting things donehttp://www.readysetstartup.com/pomodoro-technique/
http://www.readysetstartup.com/pomodoro-technique/#commentsMon, 03 Mar 2014 03:33:54 +0000http://www.readysetstartup.com/?p=2771Last week we talked about beating perfectionism and getting one thing done a day. How are you going with that? In that post, I mentioned the Pomodoro Technique as a useful tool to help you and today I’ll fill you in on what it is and how you can use it. What is the Pomodoro […]

Why should you bother?

I call the Pomodoro technique my secret weapon for beating procrastination and getting things done – because it really helps me do that. Once the timer is ticking, I settle down and focus on the task at hand. And for really boring tasks, it’s the only thing that helps me to start. (It was a life saver when I was marking University assignments.)

It also helps me manage my energy better by forcing me to take small, regular breaks. When I am focused I can tend to push myself past the point where I should stop and give myself a break. Anyone one else guilty?

And it’s great for dealing with interruptions. If my husband comes into my home office, all I need to say is “I’m on a Pomodoro” and he knows I will check in with him once I’m done. It’s kind of working with the kids too!

Here’s a couple more hints from me

My rule for myself is: Once I’m on a pomodoro, I can only work on the focus of the pomodoro. I can do nothing if I choose, but I can’t do anything else. This stops the social media/email procrastination cycle.

I make sure I get out of my seat and away from the screen on breaks. Short housework tasks, getting a tea and snack, checking the snail mail, having a short wander in the garden are all good break activities.

Sometimes I set the timer for a shorter time period if I know the task won’t take 25 minutes.

Why is it called Pomodoro Technique?

Pomodoro means ‘tomato’ in Italian. Apparently when Cirillo was first experimenting with this technique he used a kitchen timer shaped like a tomato. A tomato timer is not obligatory however!

Action:

Try out the Pomodoro Technique this week. Do a session of 3 – 4 pomodoros. Stick to the rules and see how it works for you. Let me know how it goes in the comments.

Further resources:

This is a really simple technique, and you don’t need anything to implement it, but there are all sorts of resources out there you can use if you want.

Use the timer on your phone

Apps: If you search ‘pomodoro technique’ in your relevant app market, you will find apps you can use, lots of them for free. Pick one and try it out, but try to keep it simple. I like Pomodroido for Android.

There is an extension for the Chrome Browser called Stay Focusd which is very useful. It also allows you to block distracting websites.

Join the conversation

Do you use or have you tried the Pomodoro Technique? What are your best tips to make it work for you? We’d also love to hear about your favourite apps or tools. Share with us all in the comments.

]]>http://www.readysetstartup.com/pomodoro-technique/feed/10Startup Tip 66: Why perfectionism will kill your Startup and how to beat it into a pulp before it doeshttp://www.readysetstartup.com/perfectionism/
http://www.readysetstartup.com/perfectionism/#commentsTue, 25 Feb 2014 11:12:36 +0000http://www.readysetstartup.com/?p=2760

I’ve recorded this short video for you today because I wanted to have a bit of a heart to heart about how Perfectionism will kill your startup – and how to beat it into a pulp before it does. Very blood thirsty I know! It is a problem for many of us – and you […]

I’ve recorded this short video for you today because I wanted to have a bit of a heart to heart about how Perfectionism will kill your startup – and how to beat it into a pulp before it does. Very blood thirsty I know!

It is a problem for many of us – and you probably already know if I’m talking to you.

In the video I talk about two ways Perfectionism can trip us up as entrepreneurs;

by stopping us from working or

by making us work too much.

It sounds contradictory I know, but you’ll have to watch the video to get the inside scoop. Watch here:

Action:

So what do we do about this? We need practice not being a perfectionist.

I challenge you to join me over the next 30 days in picking one thing per day that you will finish. Make it something that you can finish in the day. If you’re working on something big, chunk it down into smaller tasks and finish one per day.

Then, when it’s good enough – not when it’s perfect – get it out there or sign off on it or whatever you need to do to know it’s done.

Let’s talk in the comments

If I’m talking to you, then fess up. Tell us what you’re going to do to get on top of perfectionism and let us know how you go.

]]>http://www.readysetstartup.com/perfectionism/feed/8Startup tip 65: 8 ways to transform your smart phone into a business booster, not a deadly distractionhttp://www.readysetstartup.com/startup-tip-65-7-ways-transform-smartphone-business-booster-instead-deadly-distraction/
http://www.readysetstartup.com/startup-tip-65-7-ways-transform-smartphone-business-booster-instead-deadly-distraction/#commentsMon, 03 Feb 2014 07:29:02 +0000http://www.readysetstartup.com/?p=2730We’ve all been there. We look up from our cell phone and an hour (or two or three!) has gone past without us even realising it. We’ve been sucked into the smart phone black hole again. Managing our own time well is one of the most critical skills we can develop as an entrepreneur. Often […]

]]>We’ve all been there. We look up from our cell phone and an hour (or two or three!) has gone past without us even realising it. We’ve been sucked into the smart phone black hole again.

Managing our own time well is one of the most critical skills we can develop as an entrepreneur. Often it seems like our smart phone is the enemy, when really it should be one of our most useful tools in business.

We’re well past the start of the year now and if you’re not feeling as productive as you’d like to be, these tips might help you to claw back some time.

Action: Avoid distraction and get the most out of your smart phone

So here’s 7 tips to help you avoid distraction and get the most out of your smart phone. You probably don’t really need me to tell you these things – but sometimes we all need some friendly nagging ;-P to get us to do what we know we should do.

1. Don’t let other people tell how to use your time.

You know those beeps you get all the time. Think about them as people jumping up and down saying, “Look at me. Come on, let me distract you from something really important.” You wouldn’t respond to this in real life so don’t allow people to do it to you electronically. Turn off automatic notifications from Facebook, Twitter, your email and any other services that send you automatic notifications.

Schedule two times a day to check these things – and give yourself a time limit when you do. This will stop you getting into the procrastination cycle – you know the one where you check Facebook, check Twitter, check your email and then check Facebook again. The only exception to this is if you are doing a time limited and critical activity, like a product launch, where its crucial to respond straight away.

2. Use the right tool for the job

Smart phones are great, but just like us, they’re better at some things than others. Just because you can do a task on it, doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. Use a device with a keyboard to respond to social media comments and email, to do any task that requires working with text and also tasks like research and working with docs and spreadsheets,. It’s faster and you’ll be more efficient.

3. Annihilate the enemy

Consider deleting apps that aren’t work related and are a time suck. This will make your phone more work focused than play focused. You know the kind of apps I mean; news, Flipboard, games. Anything that sucks you into the smart phone vortex.

4. Be intentional about how you use your time

We often end up browsing on our phones because we haven’t made a conscious decision about how we want to spend that time. So plan your time. Making sure you have planned what you need to do means you won’t get sucked into social media or apps with no useful purpose.

If you do want to just chill out, decide for how long and then set a timer before browsing. That way you have an external reminder to stop whatever you are doing and get on with something productive.

5. Enlist some allies that will help you get the job done.

Your smart phone can also be your friend. There are all sorts of great apps that can help you get your work done. Here’s some of my favourites (all Android, mostly free, but you can find similar apps for iOS):

6. Invest in knowledge

I love my Kindle App on my smart phone. In fact, since I installed it, I’ve gone from being a frequent visitor to the library to never darkening it’s doors. Invest in some great books to read through your Kindle app that will help you build and grow your business. It’s a much better option than time wasters for those situations when you find yourself with some time on your hands, like public transport or doctor’s waiting rooms. My current favourite is The War of Art.

7. Set an alarm

Use alarms and timers – not just for getting up. You can use alarms to remind you to do anything important: such as going to bed on time and stopping work to relax. Timers are also really useful. You can use them to limit browsing time or phone conversations, or to help you get on with tasks,. eg. “I’ll just spend 15 minutes working on my business model canvas.” Set it and once the timer is ticking, it makes you start.

8. Make yourself unavailable

Turn your ringer off when you are focusing on something important. You can pick up voice messages later. It’s probably not that important that it can’t wait half an hour. Unless your wife’s about to go into labour. Then you’d better have it on!

Join the Conversation:

How do you use your smart phone to help you build your business? What tips and tricks and apps do you recommend?

Two days before, I had been in the fetal position on my bathroom floor, thirty-six weeks pregnant and screaming with pain. It was excruciating, the worst pain I had ever experienced—and I had experienced lots. As the ambulance officer supported me out the front door and into the back of the ambulance, all I could […]

Two days before, I had been in the fetal position on my bathroom floor, thirty-six weeks pregnant and screaming with pain. It was excruciating, the worst pain I had ever experienced—and I had experienced lots.

As the ambulance officer supported me out the front door and into the back of the ambulance, all I could think was, “How is this going to affect my baby?”

After two ambulances, two hospitals, and a barrage of tests, I was sitting on the hospital bed, absolutely exhausted—physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

My thoughts started to go down the same well-worn path: “Why me? Why do I have to deal with this? Life isn’t supposed to be like this. It isn’t fair!” …

]]>http://www.readysetstartup.com/three-ways-soar-life-isnt-fair/feed/2Startup Tip 64: How to keep moving forward in the face of uncertaintyhttp://www.readysetstartup.com/deal-with-uncertainty/
http://www.readysetstartup.com/deal-with-uncertainty/#commentsWed, 15 May 2013 04:04:15 +0000http://www.readysetstartup.com/?p=2159Uncertainty is a natural part of the startup life. It’s where the excitement comes from, where the magic happens and its a place where we live a lot while building our startup. While there’s nothing wrong with uncertainty, the problem is that it can be uncomfortable. And most of us don’t like to be uncomfortable. […]

]]>Uncertainty is a natural part of the startup life. It’s where the excitement comes from, where the magic happens and its a place where we live a lot while building our startup. While there’s nothing wrong with uncertainty, the problem is that it can be uncomfortable. And most of us don’t like to be uncomfortable.

To achieve anything or to grow in any way, you need to be prepared to face uncertainty. In fact, if you think about it, all the big life changing things you do have a fair amount of uncertainty attached to them – starting a business, having your first baby, moving to a new city or job, going back to study etc.

“The quality of your life is directly related to the amount of uncertainty you can comfortably live with.” – Tony Robbins

Meaning that if you don’t like uncertainty at all, you won’t take any risks in an effort to keep your life safe and contained. And that sounds like a recipe for mediocrity (and boredom!)

Sometimes uncertainty can get you down or send you into a negative spiral and make you unproductive. If this is happening to you, either there is too much uncertainty in your life all at once and/or the uncertainty is feeding off negative beliefs, that you may not even realise you hold, that are undermining your confidence.

The good news is that we can increase our tolerance for uncertainty. And it starts with how we think about it.

Personally, I was going through a period a few months ago where a lot of things were up in the air. There seemed to be a few of those life changing events round the corner (not the baby one though! ) I found myself feeling really overwhelmed with it all. Here’s the process I used to deal with it.

Action: Overcome Uncertainty

The value in this exercise is in thinking through it and writing down your thoughts. So stop now and grab a piece of paper (or your favourite electronic device). Don’t save it to do later (you never will.) Do it now. It will take you 2 minutes.

1. Identify what you are feeling uncertain about:

Make a list and write down everything that is bothering you, no matter how big or small

2. Identify the underlying fear:

For some things there may not be a fear, it may just be something you need to handle. But for many things you may be surprised to learn that there is some level of fear behind them. It doesn’t have to be rational (or even seem very important), just write it down anyway because it could be subconsciously holding you back. If you do this exercise with a few different situations, you will probably discover a few common underlying beliefs that influence the way you think about different situations. Realising that you apply the same unhelpful thinking to many situations is great. You can replace it with a more helpful belief which will make a big impact for you in lots of situations.

3. Identify any assumptions you have made

Also identify whether the assumption is true, incorrect or needs more information to validate it. If it is incorrect, give yourself a counter argument. If you need to validate it, what action can you take to do that? If it’s true, what action can you take to get a different result?

4. Create new (more helpful) beliefs and actions

It’s important to replace the unhelpful beliefs and fears we identify with new beliefs and actions to take that will allow us to move forward. So what new (more helpful) beliefs can you take on and what actions do you need to take? Consciously repeat these beliefs to yourself as you tackle the things you are feeling uncertain about.

Join the Conversation:

Let us know in the comments how you did with this process. Or tell us about your strategies to overcome uncertainty.

]]>http://www.readysetstartup.com/deal-with-uncertainty/feed/7Startup tip 63: How to find the best keywords for your website and dominate your nichehttp://www.readysetstartup.com/find-the-best-keywords/
http://www.readysetstartup.com/find-the-best-keywords/#commentsTue, 23 Apr 2013 11:22:17 +0000http://www.readysetstartup.com/?p=2165This is a guest post by Thomas McMahon. Having great content on your site is key, but it’s worthless if it doesn’t feature great keywords as well. Let me explain why it is so important to find the best keywords for your website. After spending entirely too much time on the internet looking at how people are […]

Having great content on your site is key, but it’s worthless if it doesn’t feature great keywords as well. Let me explain why it is so important to find the best keywords for your website.

After spending entirely too much time on the internet looking at how people are formatting their sites, it’s surprising to see how often businesses, especially new businesses or small businesses, fail to highlight the keywords relevant to their business.

The point of a business’s website is to turn traffic into customers, clients, or at least subscribers, but you need to generate traffic in the first place and one of the top sources for traffic is from search engines. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is so important, and featuring your keywords is a vital part of SEO. That’s why finding and using relevant keywords is crucial to making sure people will find you in search engines.

On the web, the saying “if you build it, they will come” doesn’t apply. If your site is not showing up in search engines, people won’t know you are there.

How to find the best keywords

To find your best keywords, look at what product or service you are trying to sell. The keywords you use should be relevant to the focus of your website and should be featured throughout all of your pages.

The best tool, in my opinion, for finding relevant keywords is Google Adwords Keyword Tool. If you have an idea for a keyword, you can fill in the “word or phrase” box to find related keywords that you can implement. Or, if you’re not sure, you can find keywords based around your URL or the category you’re operating in.

Google Adwords then gives you list of related keywords along with how competitive they are, the global monthly searches for them, and the local monthly searches for them. These numbers help you to avoid a few pitfalls and help you find keywords that are more likely to lead to conversions.

Don’t get too broad

It can be tempting to focus on a broad keyword that has tens of thousands to millions of searches a month, thinking that you’ll generate loads of traffic. These broad keywords are very hard to rank on the first page of search results and if your site is buried on page 5 or 6 (or further) it is highly unlikely you will be seen by the majority of searchers.

Also, typically, the broader the keyword, the farther away the searcher is from making a purchase. An example of a broad keyword, also known as a “short tail keyword,” might be something like flowers. Ranking your flower delivery site for this search term will probably be next to impossible without some serious muscle, but the search term flower delivery in Sydney could be doable and drive high quality traffic to your local business.

Find the right balance

So as you can see, long tail keywords (that is keywords of 3 or 4 words) are more specific and people searching for them are typically closer to the buying decision.

An example might be “size 12 men’s shoe” which gets 1,300 global searches a month. This should be much easier to rank for than trying to rank for “men’s shoe” and should drive traffic to a page selling size 12 men’s shoes. However, long tail keywords can easily become too focused. This means that a low amount of people are searching and, while it’s easy to rank well for these keywords, it’s usually not worth your time since the amount of traffic you’ll get from them isn’t worth the effort.

Optimally, your site should be ranking for a healthy mixture of short tail and long tail keywords to bring a steady flow of different kinds of visitors in.

Don’t overdo it

Once you find the best keywords for you, make sure you feature them on your pages, but don’t stuff them in willy-nilly. The keywords should appear naturally within your content. Remember, people as well as web crawlers will be reading them and if it reads like an infomercial script you’ll turn people off and get penalized by search engines.

The amount of times your keywords show up in content on any given page is known as keyword concentration which is measured as a percentage. For example, let’s assume that the target keyword for this page was “keyword.” The concentration in this article would be about 4%. Now, depending on what you read on the internet, this number might be way too low, too high, or right on the money when it comes to SEO content. Honestly, don’t worry about keyword concentration. As long as you are aware of what your keywords are, you’ll naturally fit them into your content without sounding like a late night infomercial.

Keeping with the theme of not overdoing it – it’s important to realize that Google (and most search engines) rank the individual pages of a site, not the entire domain. This means that you don’t have to try and fit in your keyword into every page of your site to get the entire thing to rank. Focus on a keyword for each specific pages that you want to rank well in the search engine results rather than trying to fit the same ones in on every page of your site.

Action:

Implement keywords on one page of your site today:

Pick a page

Use the Keywords Tool to decide which search terms you should optimise the page for

Go for it!

Susan’s note: If this is all new to you and your site is in WordPress, I recommend the WordPress SEO plugin by Joost. It makes the whole process much easier.

]]>http://www.readysetstartup.com/find-the-best-keywords/feed/9Startup Tip 62: Narrow your focus and concentrate on what is really importanthttp://www.readysetstartup.com/startup-tip-focus-on-what-is-important/
http://www.readysetstartup.com/startup-tip-focus-on-what-is-important/#commentsThu, 18 Apr 2013 05:49:31 +0000http://www.readysetstartup.com/?p=2405There’s a process I have been using for a number of years which I find quite useful for goal setting. I call it my 3 month focus. I devised it originally because I was having so many ideas, all the time, that it was causing me to get distracted and I wasn’t using my time […]

]]>There’s a process I have been using for a number of years which I find quite useful for goal setting. I call it my 3 month focus.

I devised it originally because I was having so many ideas, all the time, that it was causing me to get distracted and I wasn’t using my time productively. I needed a simple way to narrow my focus and concentrate on what was really important.

I decided to only allow myself to focus on 3 major outcomes for each 3 month period.

Here’s how I did it:

Why set a 3 month focus?

The reason I use a three month focus is:

It’s a short enough time frame that I can set goals and see them achieved as well as feel the required urgency to get them done.

It allows me to evaluate my direction and adjust if necessary every three months. Therefore I can take advantage of new opportunities while remaining focused.

It narrows my attention so i can make progress in the most important areas. No more than 3 main outcomes/projects at a time

I also have a 3 month evaluation to make sure the rest of my life (apart from work) is on track too, but more of that in another post

How I choose what to focus on

I’ve developed a template I use every 3 months that asks me the important questions I want to evaluate. You can download it here.

I start off by listing all the projects/opportunities that are currently floating around in my mind including those I am already working on and new ones I have been thinking about. (You could apply this to different business opportunities or different projects within your current business.)

Then for each project I ask myself:

MUST I do this? ie. Is this something I am compelled to do? I check for this compulsion from inside. Compulsion from outside is not so healthy. I want to be internally motivated, not just doing things because I should do them.

CAN I do this? This is a check to see if the opportunity is currently open to me right now. Sometimes I may not have the resources or connections. Sometimes the opportunity will partly depend on someone else’s decision.

Do I WANT to do this? This question forces me to check in with my wishes and desires. Will this project give me life? Is this something I really want to do?

I then look at how many ticks each project/focus has and choose the three with the most to focus on that quarter. Ones I don’t want to do or can’t do inevitably get crossed off the list.

This process leaves me with three clear areas of focus for the next 3 months which I think is plenty. I try to define each specific outcomes for each so I am clear on what I am shooting for.

How to implement your 3 month outcomes

Planning my goals is one thing. Implementing them is another.

I am visual, so the more I can see my goals, the more likely I am to stay focused on them. So I put them in places where I can see them often; in the front of my diary, on the white board on my desk. Sometimes I tape them to the front of the notebook I am currently using.

I read my 3 month outcomes each morning before I start work. I use them when planning my week and my day.

And when I get to the end of the quarter, I evaluate how I’ve gone and then start the process all over again.

Action: Plan some 3 month goals

If you think this process could be useful for you, download my template here and give it a go. Be sure to leave a comment and let us know how it goes.

]]>http://www.readysetstartup.com/startup-tip-focus-on-what-is-important/feed/69 proven ways to find good business ideas that will make a profithttp://www.readysetstartup.com/9-ways-to-find-good-business-ideas/
http://www.readysetstartup.com/9-ways-to-find-good-business-ideas/#commentsTue, 16 Apr 2013 06:35:21 +0000http://www.readysetstartup.com/?p=2369What makes a good business idea? Good business ideas are only good if they are likely to lead to a profitable and viable business. In other words, they tap into a market opportunity. We all have all sorts of ideas (all the time if you are like me ) but not all of them make […]

]]>What makes a good business idea? Good business ideas are only good if they are likely to lead to a profitable and viable business. In other words, they tap into a market opportunity. We all have all sorts of ideas (all the time if you are like me ) but not all of them make for good business ideas.

So it makes sense to look for good business ideas in places where you are likely to find them. Here’s 9 areas where you can find ideas that are likely to become a viable opportunity:

9 proven ways to find good business ideas

1. Find a specific problem and create a solution.

Buffer is a great example here. They identified a specific problem that Twitter users had – they couldn’t easily stagger the RTs of interesting tweets they found. Buffer built an app that neatly solves the problem and is massively growing its user base as a result. (If you use Twitter and haven’t used Buffer yet, you should check it out.)

2. Find an area where further improvement or development of an idea could be valuable.

This is the “build a better mousetrap” strategy. The key word here is valuable. You can improve something, but it only becomes more valuable if the customer cares about the improvements and is willing to pay for them. This really depends on finding the right target market.

For instance, personally, I don’t really care that much about what kind of car I drive as long as it’s reliable, comfortable and doesn’t cost me too much money. The car companies could make all the improvements they like, but my response would be “Meh. Nice to have but I’m not paying extra for that.” But for someone who really loves cars and who values their performance, those improvements may be valuable and hence they would be willing to pay more for them.

3. Find a fault in a product or service and remove it.

This is the classic case where a company comes in and removes inefficiencies and disrupts an industry.

An example would be when Google first entered the market with their search engine. At the time, other search engines would throw up a lot of irrelevant results as well as results that were what the user was looking for. Google worked out a way to fix that fault in search and the rest is history

4. Find an area where there is something missing in a product or service and supply it.

This is essentially the opposite of the previous technique.

5. Find a perceived gap in the market

This could be as simple as starting a business in a geographical area where there are no competitors, such as an organic produce shop in a suburb where it is hard to otherwise access organic goods. It could also be creating a new product or service to fill a perceived need. Examples are co-working spaces that are popping up all around the world, or the hundreds of baby products that seem to be invented every day. The trick with this strategy is validating that there is indeed a need for your product or service before you spend too much time or money on it.

6. Find an area where the current way of doing things imposes a high cost.

The internet has spawned thousands of businesses who take advantage of this kind of opportunity. Examples here include udemy.com and learnable.com who have brought down the price of training and professional development by delivering courses online.

7. Find an area where there is a need which is not being met.

This need may be something that people are unaware of. An example here is the development of the iPod by Apple. Until they launched the iPod, no one realised they needed to carry their whole music collection around with them, but as soon as it was released, it was a must have item.

8. Listen to your hunches.

You may have a feeling that the payoff on a particular idea will be large. The more practice you have coming up with and validating ideas, the more on the money your hunches will tend to be. Make sure you do some research to validate your hunch before you invest a lot of time and money.

9. Make a wish come true.

These are the ideas that start with “Wouldn’t it be nice if…”

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could go into space on holiday – Virgin Galatic

Wouldn’t it be nice if when I bought a pair of shoes someone in the third world could have some too – Tom’s Shoes

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could provide clean drinking water in poor communities – Thankyou Water.

Action

If you are really serious about coming up with some good business ideas, put your action where your mouth is and try this. Set a timer for 25 minutes. Create one idea for each of these categories and see if you can come up with some good business ideas that may also be an opportunity. You can do it! Let us know how you go in the comments below.

]]>http://www.readysetstartup.com/9-ways-to-find-good-business-ideas/feed/5Sisters doing it for themselves: the (interactive) list of women entrepreneurshttp://www.readysetstartup.com/list-of-female-entrepreneurs/
http://www.readysetstartup.com/list-of-female-entrepreneurs/#commentsMon, 08 Apr 2013 11:44:36 +0000http://www.readysetstartup.com/?p=2318It seems like female founders are invisible these days. Over the last few weeks, I’ve come across countless articles bemoaning the lack of women in tech. However, there are plenty of awesome women entrepreneurs out there but they are more likely to beavering away on their startup or juggling life at home than blowing their […]

]]>It seems like female founders are invisible these days. Over the last few weeks, I’ve come across countless articles bemoaning the lack of women in tech.

However, there are plenty of awesome women entrepreneurs out there but they are more likely to beavering away on their startup or juggling life at home than blowing their trumpet.

Aspiring women entrepreneurs need to hear stories of other women who’ve done it before them. It’s encouraging and helps us believe it can be done. I don’t think there are enough of those stories around.

So let’s start to change that right here – together. I need your help to create a great list of women entrepreneurs, those awesome female startup founders who inspire you. It would be great to have a really comprehensive list so journalists and conference organisers can find inspiring women entrepreneurs and give them opportunities to tell their stories.

Here’s what you can do:

Add women entrepreneurs to the list. Just click the pink “Add to List” button. Founders can be from any country and in any industry. Tell us what they’ve done and what you admire about them, and link to their twitter handle if you can so we can connect. You can also comment within the list on any of the founders.

Vote for the founders you think have done an awesome job.

Share the list with others so they can add to it too.

Here’s the list:

Female Founders

Awesome female founders we admire and everyone should know about. Please add to the list and tell us why your women are great - and vote for your favourites. I've linked to their Twitter handles where possible so you can connect.

Alex and Miriam are co-founders of Kinvolved (www.kinvolved.com). Kinvolved is an education technology startup dedicated to improving student attendance and family engagement. Kinvolved's software program allows teachers to easily record student attendance and instantly involve families by sending SMS/emails when students are absent/late. The software also graphically analyzes student data to identify at-risk students. Pairing human capital with technology is key. We provide support to schools to build out policies and a stronger culture around attendance, too.

Miriam Altman is Co-founder and Director of Educational Partnerships for Kinvolved, a social venture dedicated to increasing K-12 student attendance. Miriam is a former NYC Dept. of Ed. high school history teacher through Teach For America, a 2012 Education Pioneers Fellow, and holds an MPA in Public Policy from The Robert F. Wagner Graduate School Public Service at NYU, an MA, Ed. from Lehman College, and BA from Brown University.

Betsye Sargent & Barbara McFall

Betsye Sargent and Barbara McFall co-founded The Phoenix School in Salem, MA in 1981. Frustrated with the changes happening in public education we sat down one day and decided to each contribute $300 and our retirement--The Phoenix School opened the following fall. For the past 33 years we have focused on developing an education model based on how we observed children learn best, one in which they are actively engaged in learning, working hand-in-hand with teachers, learning how to be independent, resilient, creative, empathetic. In fact, the past 33 years have been spent refining so much of what the world seems to be demanding of a 21st century education today. For us these ideas are not new.

Bree Mitchelson

Bree Mitchelson is the founder of human and social capital company The Strategist Group and more recently, Strategist Learning and Development, a Registered Training Organisation.

Commencing her career in human resources before moving into executive search and human capital consulting, Ms Mitchelson has advised a wide range of industries both in Australia and the UK, spanning resources, manufacturing, IT, professional services and finance.

She launched The Strategist Group in 2008. Since then, the company has has developed an enviable reputation for tailoring innovative resourcing strategies that address a changing employment market with market leading results. Since its inception, the company has expanded to open an office in Melbourne and today team members work with a range of major ASX and private companies across Australia and New Zealand.

Building on the success of her first company, Ms Mitchelson founded Strategist Learning and Development last year and in doing so launched the nationally recognised Certificate IV in Recruitment Sourcing. This is the only accredited program in the field of strategic recruitment sourcing within Australia, and was developed over a 12 month period in close collaboration with key industry contributors.

Ms Mitchelson has a Bachelor of Commerce (Psychology and Human Resource Management), Certificate IV in Training and Assessment and is currently completing a Graduate Certificate in Change Management with Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM)

She is passionate about improving and raising standards within the recruitment industry through through training and innovation.

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Casey Lightbody

Part marketing mentor, part savvy systems specialist, part entrepreneurial maven AND the force behind Empowered Women with Casey Lightbody. She is on a mission to help women overcome their fears, overcome their overwhelm and overcome their limits to live life on their own terms. (http://www.twitter.com/caseylightbody)

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Catriona Pollard

Catriona Pollard is the director and founder of CP Communications, a public relations and social media agency. Catriona is a strong believer in the power of social media and an early adopter with many proven successes. She is regularly featured in the media and welcomes inquiries from journalists and conference organisers.

She has been named as one of the top 100 PR People to follow on Twitter and is one of the Sydney PR scene's leading movers and shakers.

Co-founder for Envato, and an avid traveler. Envato operates marketplaces where hundreds of thousands of people buy and sell digital goods every day, and a network of educational blogs where millions learn creative skills. www.envato.com
Melbourne, Australia

Deb Lange Mentor and Guide

Do you wonder why you make some choices that are successful and others that lead you astray?

Deb shares how she found out to uncover blind spots and learn how to daily nourish yourself, learn to be emotionally resilient and transform moment by moment limiting thoughts, beliefs and emotional pain to bounce back to a state of contentment, peace and inner truth.

These skills giving you a way to navigate your life and relationships to fulfilment, grace and ease.

Founder @getfoospot! Design Engineer at NXP semiconductors, Technology freak and putting the first step in startup world!. New Delhi
Foospot.co is a parking assistance platform operating within the Capital of India. The platform provides premium services for car drivers within city like Valet, Car Cleaning and On Demand Pre-Booking, all at the tap of a Button!

Jennifer Fitzgerald @ PolicyGenius

Jennifer Fitzgerald is the CEO and co-founder of PolicyGenius, a startup that provides online education and shopping for consumer insurance. She writes about insurance and personal finance, drawing from years of experience in consumer financial services and wealth management. Previously, Ms. Fitgerald was a consultant at McKinsey & Company, where she advised Fortune 500 financial services companies. She holds a B.A. from Florida State university, a J.D. from Columbia Law School and is a licensed insurance broker.

In 2006, she jumped into the startup scene with her husband as co-founder. Their company, Eventbrite, has since raised $80 million. Eventbrite merges ecommerce with the social graph to democratize event ticket sales, and it's likely you've used the platform to purchase tickets — the platform has helped event organizers sell more than $1 billion in ticket sales. Hartz is a proponent of fostering happiness in the workplace, and Eventbrite has been named one of the best places to work in the Bay Area.

Birchbox is a subscription service that delivers women a box of four or five deluxe beauty samples every month, allowing for a more hands-on sampling and beauty experience. Founded in 2010, the unique idea landed them a seed investment of $1.4 million, followed by a Series A round of $10.5 million. Birchbox hit its third year’s sales target in just seven months and launched Birchbox Man early in 2012 after the company racked up 100,000 subscribers.

This is a post that is long overdue. The formula in the picture summarises my whole philosophy about what is needed to create a successful business. I probably don’t need to say any more – just leave you with the picture. But for those of you who like details, I’ll expand below. The startup formula […]

This is a post that is long overdue. The formula in the picture summarises my whole philosophy about what is needed to create a successful business. I probably don’t need to say any more – just leave you with the picture. But for those of you who like details, I’ll expand below.

The startup formula

Having said that this is a formula, I want to emphasise that starting and building a business is not a series of steps that you just follow and then you are good to go. That’s the problem with those pro-forma business plan guides and software. They just don’t fit most situations.

Instead, starting a business is about using a series of fundamental principles that you apply to your particular idea and market context. How they apply and the insights you gain and the order that you use them will be slightly different for each business and will lead to unique solutions. You need to use your head. But if you know what the principles are and you apply them, then you can be confident in the decisions you make for your business.

Step 1: Have a good business idea

These days, ideas are rubbished a lot in the startup world. We’ve all heard things like, “It’s not about the idea, it’s about having a great team and great execution,” or “I’d rather have a B-grade idea and an A-grade team than an A-grade idea and a B-grade team.” Personally, I’d rather have both an A-grade idea and an A-grade team.

When people quote these comments, they are trying to emphasise that it’s not just about your idea. And that is correct. You need much more than an idea to start a business.

However, you do need a good business idea. If you start off with a mediocre idea, you are handicapping yourself right at the beginning. For instance, starting another café in an area full of cafés is probably not a good idea. Just like another mummy blog or online children’s clothing store or another app is maybe not a good idea.

You can’t tell if an idea is good because you’re excited about it or that your friends and family like it or that someone else is doing it successfully (or not.) A good business idea has certain characteristics that are independent of how you feel about the idea.

All the business ideas I mentioned above could be good ideas if they fit the definition of a good business idea. So here it is, my definition of what makes a good business idea:

A good business idea solves a specific problem for a particular group of people in a way that removes their objections to using the solution and is different from what other competing businesses are doing.

Two things are required to come up with this kind of good business idea:

1. Personal rigour and honesty in thinking through the idea.

For example, not just, “my café will be different because it will have a funky vibe” but “my café will be different because it will have space for strollers and a play space for children.” Note that the second statement has encapsulated in it

a problem (how to keep your child entertained when you want to go to a café)

a target market, (mums with young kids) and

a solution.

This solution would only be valid in your area if other competing cafes didn’t cater to this market in this way.

It’s easy to persuade ourselves that our idea is great and be less than objective, so this kind of honesty with ourselves is hard. It often helps to have feedback from people who understand what makes a good business and who you can trust to be honest with you.

2. Lots of practice in coming up with good business ideas.

Coming up with these sorts of ideas takes lots of practice in identifying opportunities and creative problem solving. Occasionally a great idea will hit us on the head, but if we want to think regularly in this way, it takes practice. You will likely need more than one good business idea to find a valid one for you to implement. Some ideas you come up with may be great, but you don’t have the skills and resources to implement them. The idea has to be a good fit for your skills, passion and experience as well as being a good solution for your target market’s problem.

So, step 1 on your way to a successful startup is to make sure you have a good business idea.

]]>http://www.readysetstartup.com/the-formula-for-a-successful-startup-part-1-start-with-a-good-business-idea/feed/5Startup Tip 61: Avoid procrastination – just do the workhttp://www.readysetstartup.com/avoid-procrastination/
http://www.readysetstartup.com/avoid-procrastination/#commentsThu, 14 Feb 2013 02:22:22 +0000http://www.readysetstartup.com/?p=2045Creativity is really hard work. I’m actually writing this blog post, but I’m supposed to be writing another one – but to marshal my thoughts seemed like a lot of effort. Building a business is full of creative tasks that require really hard thinking, unfamiliar tasks that require us to work and boring tasks that we would […]

]]>Creativity is really hard work. I’m actually writing this blog post, but I’m supposed to be writing another one – but to marshal my thoughts seemed like a lot of effort.

Building a business is full of creative tasks that require really hard thinking, unfamiliar tasks that require us to work and boring tasks that we would just rather not do.

What we tend to do when faced with these tasks is procrastinate. A little creative procrastination can be okay – you know, when you need to do something in order to let your mind turn over thoughts. But procrastination that is unchecked and unaware and uncontrolled is a death knoll for a business. The problem with procrastination is that we can keep doing it until the day is gone, until opportunities pass us by, until we die.

“Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone”
― Pablo Picasso

So it’s really important for us to avoid procrastination.

Action: Avoid procrastination

Here are some steps you can take to avoid procrastination:

Become aware of your procrastination habits. (How many of those mentioned in the video do you do? I found this funny and sobering because I related to it.) Techniques you can use to increase your awareness include:

Keeping a record of what you are doing every 15 minutes during the day. You will be more aware when recording, but also you will uncover lots of your procrastination habits.

Write down everything you have achieved at the end of each day. If the list is looking a bit light on you can look back and decide why

Write yourself a schedule or routine and stick to it. This is especially important if you work from home or by yourself.

Just start the hard work, rather than checking emails & social media sites first.

Go somewhere else to work where there are less distractions. The local library, cafe or coworking space all work for me.

Know what your goals are, keep clear about them and revise them everyday. When your goals are front of mind its much harder to waste time

Have a compelling reason for what you are doing. If you don’t find your work compelling, then maybe you are doing the wrong thing.

]]>http://www.readysetstartup.com/avoid-procrastination/feed/7Our path to $1 Million in sales – Walker Williams & Teespring.comhttp://www.readysetstartup.com/it-entrepreneur-teespring/
http://www.readysetstartup.com/it-entrepreneur-teespring/#commentsWed, 06 Feb 2013 23:50:10 +0000http://www.readysetstartup.com/?p=2005This is a guest post written by Walker Williams, Co-founder of Teespring & purveyor of t-shirt magic. Just over nine months ago, armed with a few beta users and a short wait list, we launched Teespring to the world. The concept was simple: Kickstarter for custom t-shirts. Instead of dropping thousands of dollars to get your tees screen […]

]]>This is a guest post written by Walker Williams, Co-founder of Teespring & purveyor of t-shirt magic.

Just over nine months ago, armed with a few beta users and a short wait list, we launched Teespring to the world. The concept was simple: Kickstarter for custom t-shirts. Instead of dropping thousands of dollars to get your tees screen printed and trying to figure out how to get them to your buyers, all you had to do was come to Teespring, design your tee, set a goal (the higher the goal, the cheaper the price per tee), and launch the campaign. Buyers could come to your campaign and pre-order your tee, and once you reached your goal we’d handle the production and fulfillment and send you a check for the profit.

The original Teespring platform

We had big dreams of Techcrunch articles and explosive growth. We’d poured ourselves into this, people were sure to be blown away and it wouldn’t be long before they’d be sharing it with their friends. It was only a matter of time.

The reality was far less exciting. No one was interested in covering our launch, only a small percentage of the waiting list opened their invite email, and traffic was the same as it had been the day before. It was time to face the truth: There would be no overnight success for us, we’d have to grind it out.

How things started

During our senior year, Brown’s legendary dive bar (The Fish Company) was shut down following underage drinking violations. Notoriously easy to get into (I once saw someone get in with a Pokémon card for ID), it had been the bar of choice for crazy nights as long as anyone could remember. The whole campus was talking about it, on Facebook, Twitter and in the Brown Daily Herald.

Seeing the explosion of interest, Evan Stites-Clayton (my soon-to-be co-founder) and I decided to see if there was anything we could do to harness some of that momentum (and hopefully make a little money while we were at it). T-shirts seemed like an easy option, so we gave our local screen printer a call to figure out the logistics.

It quickly became apparent that selling t-shirts, and merchandise in general, isn’t as easy as it seems. In order to print t-shirts we’d need to know exactly how many tees (and what sizes) we’d need beforehand, we’d need to front thousands of dollars to get them printed and it would be a couple weeks before we had the tees in hand to sell. None of those conditions worked for us. We had no money, no idea how many t-shirts were going to sell, and in two weeks the buzz would have long since died. We looked at services like CafePress and Spreadshirt, but they used digital printing – a technique that avoided the setup costs of screen printing, but actually ends up being higher cost (and lower quality) at anything above 10-15 shirts. A tee we were quoted $7 on started at $20 on CafePress.

Frustrated with the lack of options, we decided to build something ourselves. We started coding at 5pm and by 11pm we pushed freefishco.com live (it’s still up if you want to check it out). The premise was pretty basic: If we could get 200 people to pre-order the t-shirt, we’d have them printed and individually ship them to buyers. If we couldn’t reach that goal of 200, no one would be charged and that would be that. We ended up breaking our goal in less than 24 hours and walking away with over $1,000 of profit. More interesting than the money, however, was the number of emails we received from groups, clubs and causes who wanted something similar for their t-shirt idea. That was the point at which we knew there might be a bigger opportunity lurking.

First steps

Tees starting to stack up in June

The first thing we did was talk to as many people as we could. Evan and I had worked together previously on a project that we’d built to solve a bunch of problems that it turned out nobody actually had, and we didn’t want to repeat that mistake. We talked to charities, fraternities, random people with awesome tee ideas – anyone who’d reply to an email or pick-up the phone. We talked to screen printers, fulfillment houses and shipping providers.

We also picked up an important partner, Bill Cesare. Bill was a local angel investor who had been an advisor to us on previous projects. Bill wrote us our first check (which allowed us to drop our side jobs and focus on Teespring full-time), but more importantly he joined the team to head up our operations and logistics. If I had to pick a moment in our history that had the most impact in terms of getting us where we are today, Bill joining the team would be it.

Sell sell sell

Development took about twice as long as we had initially hoped (as it always seems to). We got particularly held up on the t-shirt designer tool – which we rebuilt from scratch a grand total of three times before arriving at the iteration we launched with. During that delay period we were talking with potential customers, such as non-profits and online communities, and launching as many beta campaigns as we could.

Awesome Pycoders Weekly tees

Right away we could see that it wasn’t as easy to sign up new customers as we’d hoped, especially without a design tool. While people seemed sold on the concept, nobody wanted to take the time to create their own design or launch their campaign. We ended up providing hours and hours of design consultations to groups that would only sell ~50 t-shirts, it was hugely unprofitable and there wasn’t a chance it would scale – but it created happy customers and that was what we needed.

Growing

One thing we noticed after we launched was that very few people were using our product organically. We had a hand in almost everything that was on the site, whether we had contacted the person directly, created their design for them, written the description, etc. It was a scary realization, because it went against one of our fundamental growth assumptions: If we introduced people to Teespring as the backers of campaigns, there was a chance they would come back as campaign organizers in the future. It also cast a dim outlook on our future. Why weren’t buyers converting? How many leads could we continue to reach out to before the sources dried up? Had we built something no one actually needed after all? For three or four months we managed to grow slowly, usually taking one step back for every two we struggled forward (and I have to give every ounce of credit for that early growth to Matt Hayes and Mike Cesare – and later Sean Peninno – our scrappy marketing team).

And then, after a dismal August, something changed. I don’t have a great explanation for it, it’s as though we had been pushing a boulder up a hill and the slope was finally easing off. Perhaps we’d reached a tipping point in traffic, perhaps it was all those emails and cold calls finally paying off, or perhaps it was just blind luck. Campaigns started popping up organically and selling hundreds of t-shirts, TWiT launched their first campaign and sold almost 3,000 tees, we finally got that article in Techcrunch, we flew past $1M in sales with over $250k in December and, above all, we’re finally profitable.

There’s still a long way to go, but it feels like the top is finally in sight and, hopefully, there’s a downhill waiting for us on the other side.

Defining your core values

From the day we launched we always said we wanted Apple quality with Amazon’s customer experience. It’s something that’s core to us. I’ll always remember ordering a Bluetooth Headset from Amazon that was marked as delivered but was nowhere to be found. I contacted Amazon not expecting more than a “sorry” and phone number where I could call UPS – but to my amazement they offered me a full refund or replacement. A problem that was by no stretch of the imagination their fault, and yet they were going to make it right. From that point on I’ve always been loyal to Amazon, whether I need office furniture or new hardware – I’ll always go to Amazon first. Those are the types of relationships we wanted to build.

As we grew it wasn’t always easy to maintain that philosophy. Like most startups, we’ve made more than our fair share of mistakes. Orders don’t arrive in time for events, shipments get lost, designs are printed in the wrong color, etc. We pretty quickly figured out that there was no way to completely eliminate errors, but we could control how we reacted to those errors when they did pop up. We adopted a blanket no-questions-asked refund rule for anyone who is unhappy with their purchase, we rush out replacements for misprinted t-shirts, and we issue full refunds for packages that are significantly delayed. We’ve even refunded or replaced tees for a few people whose packages were marked as delivered. I believe those values are part of what helped us maintain a generally happy customer base despite our fuck-ups

Don’t forget how to celebrate

Jake, Evan and Nic (from left to right) hacking away in Mountain View

One of the things that has surprised me most is that there hasn’t been a huge shift in the way I feel about most aspects of the business since we were a quarter the size. There are still days where problems seem unsolvable and it feels like we’re teetering on the edge of failure (and maybe we are – who knows). Profitability always seemed like this imaginary finish line, the place at which we could maybe take a deep breath and relax a little, but now that we’ve made it, it’s been replaced by a never ending quest for growth. Even during our best months, a part of me can’t help but feel terrified at the fact that next month the race is going to start all over and we’ll have to not only reach that same level, but exceed it (and, if you want to keep those investors excited, exceed it by 40%).

Entrepreneurship is a game of extreme highs and devastating lows, and it’s been important to our sanity to try to celebrate our victories and keep the bigger picture in mind. Cake is our weapon reward of choice, and it’s been super effective.

Walker Williams has been working on startups both as a founder and on the programming/ux side of things for the past 7 years, graduated from Brown University in 2011 and founded Teespring a couple months later. Want to get in touch? Shoot me an email at walker@teespring.com.

This article has been republished from its original source with the permission of it’s author, Walker Williams.

]]>http://www.readysetstartup.com/it-entrepreneur-teespring/feed/3Why creativity is essential to your survival as an entrepreneurhttp://www.readysetstartup.com/business-creativity/
http://www.readysetstartup.com/business-creativity/#commentsTue, 05 Feb 2013 10:51:47 +0000http://www.readysetstartup.com/?p=1963Creativity and Ideas tend to get a bit of a bashing these days in the startup world. This tweet I received the other day expresses the sentiment well. “Susan: Ideas are a dime a dozen. Finding a great co-founder and building a great team is 10x more important than the Idea.” While I agree that a […]

Creativity and Ideas tend to get a bit of a bashing these days in the startup world. This tweet I received the other day expresses the sentiment well.

“Susan: Ideas are a dime a dozen. Finding a great co-founder and building a great team is 10x more important than the Idea.”

While I agree that a great team is important, what tends to be forgotten is that a great team are people who have expertise in particular areas as well as the creativity to apply their expertise in new and innovative ways. Great entrepreneurs are truly creative people. They are able to manipulate the elements of business to create new solutions to business problems in the same way that a composer manipulates the elements of music to write a great song.

So, over the next month, I will focus on writing about creativity here at Ready Set Startup because I believe creativity is an essential part of the entrepreneur’s toolkit.

Here’s four reasons why it’s worth valuing and working on your business creativity:

If you truly want to build a great business, you need to apply creativity to it.

Creativity is one of several factors that distinguish a small business from a startup. Take the field of graphic design for example. A graphic designer who starts advertising their services and working for clients is a small business, even if she is brilliant and even if she grows her business to employ many other designers. Apply business creativity to the field of graphic design and you have a startup like 99designs.

As an entrepreneur, you are paid to solve problems and you need business creativity to find and develop solutions that no one else has thought of yet.

For example, you arrive in a new city and don’t know anyone. How are you going to find sympathetic souls? Or you want to start a business, learn more and meet other aspiring entrepreneurs and potential co-founders. Where do you go?

Now the solution is obvious – you go to Meetup.com. But in 2002, the solution wasn’t so obvious and it took considerable business creativity to develop it.

A little creativity will keep you sane and might just save your butt in the crazy life of a startup founder.

You need business creativity to come up with an idea in the first place, but don’t check it at the door when you start implementing. You’re going to need it!

What do you do when your product isn’t selling? Create a new marketing campaign? Pivot? Both those things require creativity.

What do you do when you are running out of cash? Coming up with a workable financial solution that allows your startup to stay alive and keep focused requires business creativity.

How do you work out how to keep your life partner happy as well as spend time on your startup? You guessed it! Use a little creativity.

The more you can develop your creative edge, the more of a competitive advantage you give yourself.

Most entrepreneurs are creative types to some degree (whether they see themselves that way or not). However the thing that will set you apart is your ability to come up with creative & practical solutions and your ability to implement them. The more you hone both those skills, the more likely you are to, firstly, come up with a good business idea and secondly, do the hard yards needed to implement it.

]]>http://www.readysetstartup.com/business-creativity/feed/4Startup Tip 60: It’s okay to make mistakeshttp://www.readysetstartup.com/startup-mistakes/
http://www.readysetstartup.com/startup-mistakes/#commentsThu, 31 Jan 2013 12:04:18 +0000http://www.readysetstartup.com/?p=1927Tonight I attended the Lean Startup Melbourne meetup and listened to a panel of founders who have all been through accelerator programs. One of the things they talked about was startup mistakes and I wanted to share their wisdom with you. Success stories on TechCrunch often give us the impression that startup founders are super […]

]]>Tonight I attended the Lean Startup Melbourne meetup and listened to a panel of founders who have all been through accelerator programs. One of the things they talked about was startup mistakes and I wanted to share their wisdom with you.

Success stories on TechCrunch often give us the impression that startup founders are super confident super heroes who don’t make startup mistakes. (After all would you admit to mistakes on TechCrunch?) However, these guys were honest (and courageous) enough to admit they are human, to the encouragement of everyone there.

These are their words, as I heard them:

“It’s not true that you can’t start a startup because you don’t know what to do next.

Really no one has a clue what they are doing.

When you are in the middle of a startup, you feel like a total fraud.

A startup is a series of mistakes that you make, until you stop making them and are successful.” [Tweet this]

And I love this response from Bowei Gai @Bowei – (500 Startups participant, co-founder of Cardmunch (sold to LinkedIn) and now founder of World Startup Report.) When asked “What would you do differently next time?” he replied,

“I wouldn’t do anything differently because its okay to make mistakes and every mistake you learn from. So keep on making mistakes.” [Tweet this]

Action:

The key takeaway here is that it is most important to keep doing stuff as quickly as you can and not worry too much about making mistakes. After all, so much of the startup journey is stepping into the unknown anyway. So embrace it!

Keep on doing stuff and making mistakes!

Join the conversation:

What mistakes have you made in your startup journey? What did you learn from them?